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Indian archer Chikitha Taniparthi etched her name into the history book by clinching the Under-21 women's compound crown at the World Archery Youth Championships 2025 in Winnipeg, Canada.
Chikitha's medal-winning success was India's first-ever archery gold medal in this category at the Youth World Championships. Throughout the knockout stages, the 20-year-old Indian archer put up her stellar form on exhibition, according to Olympics.com. In the semi-finals, she hardly broke a sweat and breezed past Spain's Paula Diaz Morillas 142-133. In a closely contested final, she held her nerve in the gold medal clash against Park Yerin of the Republic of Korea, and prevailed with a 142-136 victory. In the quarter-finals, the game went right down to the wire, with Chikitha digging deep to defeat compatriot and 2023 senior Asian champion Parneet Kaur 146-143. In the U18 compound events, India thrived with dominant performances. In an all-Indian women's semi-final, Prithika Pradeep edged out Surya Hamsini Madala 130-128, before losing by a whisker against America's O'Donohue Savannah by 143-140 in the final to settle for silver. The U18 men's competition saw Yogesh Joshi fall 136-132 to New Zealand's Hector McNeilly in the semi-finals. In the bronze medal match, Joshi fought hard but lost 143-139 to Chinese Taipei's Yen Tzu Hsiang and returned empty-handed from the contest. India also settled for a silver medal in the U18 mixed compound team event, where Prithika and Mohit Dagar were overwhelmed 150-149 by the American pair of O'Donohue Savannah and Caleb Quiocho in the final. The Indians had led 37-34 after the opening set, but the Americans upped the ante and clawed their way back to savour glory by a single point. India sits in third on the medals table with a total of six (three gold, two silver and a bronze). The US (four gold, one silver, five bronze) leads the medals table with South Korea (three gold, four silver, one bronze) in second. (ANI)
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